Self-Supported Bimetallic Phosphide Heterojunction-Integrated Electrode Promoting High-Performance Alkaline Anion-Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis
Lei Guo, Xinying Liu, Zexing He, Zhichao Chen, Ziyi Zhang, Lun Pan, Zhen‐Feng Huang, Xiangwen Zhang, Yunming Fang, Ji‐Jun Zou
Abstract
Developing effective, stable, and economical catalysts toward overall water splitting under industrial conditions is crucial for the large-scale production of green hydrogen. Herein, we report a general method to fabricate bimetallic phosphide heterojunctions on nickel foam (NF) for water electrolysis. Benefiting from the unique self-supported integrated structure and optimized electronic structure, the Co2P–Ni12P5/NF and Fe2P–Ni12P5/NF heterojunction exhibits ultralow overpotentials of 219 mV for hydrogen evolution and 342 mV for oxygen evolution at 1000 mA cm–2 in 1 M KOH, respectively. Notably, the assembled two-electrode system attains a high current density of 1000 mA cm–2 with a low cell voltage of 1.678 V under simulated industrial electrolysis conditions. Furthermore, when applied in an anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) cell, Co2P–Ni12P5/NF||Fe2P–Ni12P5/NF exhibits superior performance over commercial Pt/C/NF||IrO2/NF. Our study provides a general method for developing economical and practical water-splitting electrocatalysts for large-scale renewable hydrogen production.